Parents should be involved in any potential decision by their own minor children to end a pregnancy—but in Indiana, a court (again) has given the upper hand to none other than Planned Parenthood, the biggest abortion provider in the U.S.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled this past Friday against an Indiana law that would have limited a minor’s ability to obtain an abortion without the consent of a parent.
In Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky v. Kristina Box, the three-judge panel—led by Judge David Hamilton, an Obama appointee in 2009, who wrote the majority opinion—“again affirm[ed] the district court’s preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the challenged law pending full review in the district court.”
The judges were split 2-1.
The law under consideration in Indiana would have permitted a judge to tell the parents of underaged children that they were asking for a waiving of the state’s parental consent abortion requirement.
But the Seventh Circuit on Friday concluded that law is unconstitutional.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back to the appellate level, asking the Seventh Circuit to reexamine it. It may again head back to the High Court.
As The National Review pointed out, “The policy [in question] was established in 2017 as an amendment to the state’s judicial-bypass process, which enables minors to seek an abortion even without parental consent if a judge determines that abortion is in her ‘best interests.’ The amendment altered that process so that, if a judge did permit a minor to proceed with an abortion without parental consent, her parents would at least be notified of the decision.”
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“Parental-consent and parental-notification laws have become an important focal point in abortion debates at the state level in recent years, even though there has generally been consensus that such policies are a prudent restriction on abortion,” The National Review also noted.
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—By CNJ Staff